Blues @ Kings – Round 1 Game 4 – Making A Series Of It

One thing I love about the playoffs is that the intensity takes its toll on us all. Win or lose, playoff games are taxing on our endorphins, stress levels and livers. Just as I start to calm down from the previous game, boom! Here comes another one, and not a moment too soon.

What will Darryl Sutter do to boost the offense? Maybe nothing. He has always championed the idea that you keep working and the goals will come. This series is quite easily the tightest in the league, every inch a mile and those miles stained with blood and sweat.

He could play Toffoli; dude’s just sitting there. But I don’t think he does, nor do I think he should. If Kopitar and Carter are having so much trouble finding space to breath and work their magic, what makes you think Toffoli, who is much more likely to get exposed under such strenuous conditions than he is to flourish, will be able to succeed where the mega millionaire Cup champions have failed?

He could screw with the lines, and once again I will say I think Penner or Clifford belongs at Richards’ left.

While this is a tightly coached series, coaching has nothing to do with opening the floodgates on the Kings offense, or hell, at this point cracking room for a steady trickle. Our top players need to take it upon themselves to not be denied. Kopitar and Carter have not shown quite the level of hunger and desperation necessary. That trend will not continue.

But enough talk. It’s all bullshit save for what happens on the ice. I want Staples louder than it was on Saturday, which was not loud enough. I want encroaching Blues fans heckled mercilessly. I want this game to start already because damn it, I’m antsy.

Right now, I just want to pray.

Our Kings, these defending Stanley Cup Champion Kings, who art in the motherfucking playoffs,
Hallowed be thy game tonight.
Thy Kingdom come if thy wills will be done,
On our ice, because that’s just the way it has to be.
Give us this day our goals, however many are needed,
So that we may forgive ourselves for a deficit and tie this series up.
And in the meantime give these dicks from St. Louis a sound slapping.
That we may be led past the first round,
Past these ugly ass Blues,
Amen.

36 replies

Our centers should be kicking the piss directly out of the kidneys of St. Lose’ centers. Perhaps we had taken a turn for the surreal. But that is over now. The kids’ jitters are gone, A-Mart is back in and Kopi, Richards, Stoll, and Fraser will dominate both ends of the ice. The breakout will once again be textbook, the cycle–a thing of beauty with the F3 always open…..complete gap control……. and a once more dominant, mistake-free Jonathan Quick. Go Kings Go!!!!

I think Toffoli should be playing instead of King. Tyler could bring that dose of rookie magic that we need again, and he will be another offensive threat that could draw the attention off of Carter or Kopi and allow them to shine. But really, King needs to sit, he’s been pretty poo poo this season.

“While this is a tightly coached series, coaching has nothing to do with opening the floodgates on the Kings offense, or hell, at this point cracking room for a steady trickle. Our top players need to take it upon themselves to not be denied.”

Disagree. I think coaching has a lot to do with opening the floodgates. The key to offensive success in this series is the break out (like every other team). The squad needs to break out much more efficiently and effectively. Once they can get that wired down, the speed through the neutral zone will come and then result in more carry ins vs dump ins.

The problem was that their forecheck was so stifling that the squad had a helluva time breaking out. They made an adjustment 2nd game and it worked out better.

St Louis will disrupt the breakout (like every other NHL team) and when that happens the Kings have very little options to skate and pass to and are forced to play dump and chase.

Coaching needs to make those adjustments. Coaching also needs to manage line combos. Once the players can start to implement these adjustments, scoring should open up more.

No the way I see it is that these are two of the best defensive coaches in the game. They are the reason the floodgates are shut tight And any adjustment one makes to open up the offense the other will quickly recognize and counter. System will only take these two teams so far offensively when up against such an extremely tight knit defensive squads. It is going to take sheer reckless abandon towards the net and individual heroics to break through.

Reckless abandon towards the net and individual heroics are good but they have to have the puck to do that. St Louis is doing an awesome job of clogging up the neutral zone so the squad can’t really enter with speed.

I do think Kopitar can play more offense. He’s such a good two way player that his O suffers. I think he’s got to put more into the O side of things tonight. Going down 3-1 would be bad.

Carts…I think his shit will start going in soon enough. He can’t go this dry for this long.

We’ve had speed through the neutral zone and plenty of possession at various points in the series, what’s been missing are forcing lanes to the net. Credit the Blues, they are doing a fantastic job of keeping shots to the perimeter, but as our lone goal in game 3 proved, that don’t mean shit when 3 forwards crash the net.

I know the Blues are going to clog the neutral zone. It’s what they do and any adjustments the Kings make the Blues will adjust to. The neutral zone will never open up this series, face it and move on. Crash the net crash the net crash the net.

Boy has the defensive hitting been disappointing this year. Maybe a total product of not having Greene and Mitchell. No one is really stepping into a puck carrier and laying them out. Also, last year Brownie was much more of a presence than through the first four games this year.

I’m gonna reply to my own post cause I’m a drunk loser. I’m not saying they have to score but fuck make some sort of an impact. Everytime they got the puck they r not doing shit. Except watching st louis go the other way.

As we can all see with my multiple posts I am NOT tech savvy. My stupid phone will not allow me to see beyond a few lines of what I text, and my contract with AT&T is now up. Where is Kelsey? Player X recommended the Samsung s4. Any other suggestions from any of you out there? This current phone is driving me out of my fucking tree. I may hurt someone. I don’t want to but as lawyer Scribe will attest, the Twinkie defense almost(?) worked. I currently have a Motorola Atrix dual core. Shortly it will be flying out the fucking window And I no longer will have this phone. So if anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated and my post

I am counting my days..14 til I dump this POS.
Do NOT go with Motorola..they have dropped the ball on phones.. Do not be enticed by their new one with the longer battery. Buy an extended battery.
I like Androids. Don’t have to worry about breaking the glass.. 95% of peeps I know with an iPhone have had this happened. And every problem, expensive fixs. I am going for Samsung.. either the Galaxy 3 for cheap, or the new Galaxy 4…
BTW Costco is a great Broker..better then store or online imo… I have used them all with phone purchases over the years…I have Verizon. I think all the Cellular companies do not care about their customers in General. Just like Dish and Direct TV.
Great Game last night!!!
Very Happy!
GO KINGS GO!!!
WWTC!!!

Williams has consistently been our best forward of late and super glad he got the game winner! What a beauty! All Kings goals were. Keep pressure in the offensive zone and right, breakouts are key, but preventing their’s is just as important and we did that tonight. Keep it up boys!
Also great great on Penner! What a beast he can be when he puts his heart into it!!